FCC Enforcement Advisory Concerning Two-Way VHF&sol;UHF Radios

On September 24, 2018, the Federal Communications Commisssion (FCC) published
Enforcement Advisory No. 2018-03
(the Advisory)—titled Two-way VHF/UHF radios may not be imported,
advertised, or sold in the United States unless they comply with the
Commission’s rules—in response to “an increase in the manufacturing,
importation, advertising, and sale of two-way VHF/UHF radios that are
not authorized in accordance with the Commission’s rules.” 1
The Advisory has been published in
PDF,
DOC, and
plain text formats.

One item of note in the Advisory is an
Amateur Radio Exception
which appears to disallow the use of uncertified devices by Amateur
Radio Service (ARS) licensees.

The Advisory “follows an August 1 Citation and Order to Amcrest Industries, LLC (formerly Foscam Digital Technologies, LLC), an importer and marketer of popular and inexpensive BaoFeng handheld transceivers, alleging that the company violated FCC rules and the Communications Act by illegally marketing unauthorized RF devices.” 2

The members of the Land Mobile Communications Council
(LMCC) wholeheartedly endorse your efforts to enlist the support of
eBay and Amazon to partner with the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) in fighting the distribution of illegal products that fail
to comply with and/ or falsely use FCC branding on their devices.
LMCC is a nonprofit association of organizations that represent
the wireless communications interests of public safety, critical
infrastructure, business, industrial, transportation, private carriers,
and manufacturers of wireless communications equip ment. The LMCC has a
similar concern to that which you have raised regarding non-compliant
set-top boxes that are sold through those two companies. Our issue is
the widespread importation , distribution, and use of radio frequency
devices that do not comply with FCC rules.

The two-way radios in question are being marketed for use by any
individual or entity, for any purpose , without regard to Federal
and non-Federal spectrum allocations, user eligibility, or licensing
requirements. Some devices indicate that they have been certified
by the FCC while others do not. Even those that display an FCC
certification are shipped to consumers and businesses from eBay and
Amazon preprogrammed on a variety of channels for which the user is
ineligible including aeronautical, broadcast auxiliary, and public
safety frequencies. 3

Amateur Radio Exception

If a device is capable of operating only on frequencies
that the FCC has allocated for use by Amateur Radio Service licensees,
it does not require FCC equipment authorization, and an amateur
licensee may use his or her license to operate such radios. However,
many two-way radios that purport to operate on amateur frequencies
also operate on frequencies that extend beyond the designated amateur
frequency bands. If a two-way VHF/UHF radio is capable of operating
outside of the amateur frequency bands, it cannot be imported,
advertised, sold, or operated within the United States without an FCC
equipment certification. 1